The Police and Crime Commissioner who reported his staff for exposing his expenses claim for a chauffeur-driven Mercedes apologised yesterday – but says he has no regrets about calling in the police.
Cumbria PCC Richard Rhodes reported the whistleblowers for telling a newspaper he had charged the taxpayer £700 for two chauffeur-driven trips.
He admitted yesterday he should have checked the cost of the trips before charging them to the taxpayer, but refused to apologise to the three people who face possible prison sentences if they are convicted of leaking details of his expenses claim.
He went on to say that he would use his new £23,000 Hyundai crossover – another taxpayer-funded perk – in the future.
Cumbria police chief Bernard Lawson said his officers will send a file to the Crown Prosecution Service so it can consider charges against the staff members who blew the whistle. Two people have been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office and another on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.
Those found guilty of these offences commonly draw prison sentences of a year or more.
MPs from all parties have condemned the police investigation that followed after the local newspaper that received the leak, the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald, called Mr Rhodes’ office to check the details of his expenses.
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Labour MP for Barrow and Furness John Woodcock said the affair was ‘alarming’ and called for new laws to protect whistleblowers.
Defence: Cumbria Police say that the commissioner is driven for his safety and the trips were stopped once he saw the cost
MAY URGES CAUTION OVER SECRET ARRESTS
Theresa May last night urged caution over plans for secret arrests.
The Home Secretary said the Association of Chief Police Officers should be ‘very careful’ about removing the right for people to know who they detain.
Under guidance being drawn up by ACPO on behalf of the judiciary, forces would be banned from revealing the names of those held on suspicion of crimes, to protect their reputation.
Even families and friends would be kept in ignorance and unable to help.
Mrs May told MPs: ‘These are not just black and white arguments.
‘You have to look at them very carefully in terms of the impact that they have.’
Critics say it is an assault on open justice and threatens to turn Britain into a ‘banana republic’.
‘It is time to change the law to give explicit protection to people who shine a spotlight on the inappropriate use of public money,’ he said.
‘Employees in wasteful organisations should be applauded, not punished, for taking a stand.’
The scandal broke after Mr Rhodes spent £700 going to two dinners in a hired Mercedes with a driver.
The trips were from his home in the south of the Lake District rather than from his office in Penrith, and cost the taxpayer £385 and £313.
Mr Rhodes made a partial apology at a press conference yesterday. He said: ‘I have made two mistakes.
Firstly, not checking the cost of the car. Others had made the arrangements. Once I knew the costs, I immediately asked the office to stop the arrangements.
‘Secondly, I apologise that my expenses were not published earlier. The short period of time since November has been a very busy period for the office. I apologise unreservedly to the people of Cumbria, regarding my expenses.’
Mr Rhodes, a former headmaster, said that when he started his job, he declined a car and driver. But the 71-year-old has since been supplied with a Hyundai IX35, costing £23,000, after deciding he needs it for his work.
‘Cumbria is an extremely large county,’ he said. ‘I have driven over 4,500 miles since mid-January.’
Mr Rhodes added: ‘Cumbria Constabulary has a whistleblowing policy, which everyone has access to and has read.
‘On Thursday, April 4, I had a call from the office to say that the local press had been on to them with the news about the story they were going to run about my expenses, and during that conversation we were told that photocopies of the invoices had been sent to the reporter through the mail.
‘This does not constitute any part of the Constabulary’s whistleblowing policy.’
Tory MP Tracey Crouch said the scandal was the inevitable outcome of the Leveson Report on the culture, ethics and practices of the Press. Miss Crouch said: ‘This is the sort of heavy-handed response which is a threat to those who act in the public interest by giving stories to the papers.’
A NEW ROLE, RAVAGED BY CONTROVERSY
The arrest of whistleblowers in Cumbria is just the latest embarassment to the newly created role of police and crime commissioners.
Kent PCC Ann Barnes faced public ridicule this month after she appointed a 17-year-old as a £15,000-a-year youth crime tsar – only for the teenager to resign tearfully within a fortnight of her appointment.
The teenager, Paris Brown, stepped down after she was found to have posted a string of racist and obscene rants on Twitter which ended up being investigated by her own force.
Resigned: Teenager Paris Brown
Mrs Barnes has also been criticized for spending large sums on staff and equipment, including £15,000 on a battle bus she has called Ann Force One.
Other PCCs who have faced controversy include former Labour minister Vera Baird QC, who is in charge of Northumbrian police.
She was criticised after saying she would not prioritise tackling low-level drug use because it would take up too much of her officers’ time.
In her new policing plan she has completely ignored drug use.
Elected PCCs were brought in by the Coalition to introduce democracy to policing.
But the campaigns to choose the first of the new commissioners failed to generate interest among members of the public, and turnouts for elections last November were as low as 10 per cent in some areas.
Critics say the system has introduced an expensive and pointless layer of bureaucracy to policing.
PCCs, who earn £65,000 to £100,000 depending on the size of their force, must disclose their expenses every three months, but more than half the 45 in England and Wales have failed to.